Lembwelsong along the seaside

Lembwelsong along the seaside is said to be the entrance to the afterlife or 'Dak Paradaes' (dark paradise). The Mewun describe the Dark Paradise or afterlife as a place where there is no sun or moon, only darkness. They believe that there was a time when no one died. According to legend, one day two brothers discovered how to make a bow and arrow with which they accidentally shot their father. The wounded man told his sons that he must leave him for a while, but they must meet him five days later for a feast at a large stone bluff near the sea. The sons agreed, but when the fifth day arrived, the older brother convinced the younger one that they had miscounted the days and they did not go to the appointed spot until the following morning. When they arrived at the stone, they saw the remnants of a feast, red and white yams, hurled and smashed against the side of the stone, but there was no sign of their father. With his cooking fire and food, he had waited in vain for his sons, and because of their filial mistake, he had passed through the large stone bluff to the underworld. From that time on, all Mewun died.

Lebwelsong is a large bluff separating Lamango plantation from Wintua. At low tide the foot of Lembwelsong is out of water, permitting people to walk around this cliff from the plantation to the village. At high tide, however, this path is underwater. Anthropologist Joan Larcom first arrived in South West Bay aboard a copra transport boat that anchored at Lamango. Deciding to walk over to the village soon after arrival, she found herself in water up to her waist around Lembwelsong. As she approached the Wintua beach, two small girls washing pots there turned and fled up the trail to the village plateau. After several months in Wintua, someone confided to Joan that these girls had run through the village announcing that a white devil was wading toward Wintua.

• Summer 1981

• Larcom, Joan

• Skinner-Jones, Ann

• Land and Custom Sustained and Revived

• Melanesia
• Oceania
• Pacific Islands
• South West Bay (Malakula, Vanuatu)
• Wintua (Malekula, Vanuatu)

• Bow and arrow
• Landscape
• Legends

• image

• No linguistic content; Not applicable

• Skinner-Jones, Ann

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2021-11-16